I Told You It's The Good Life

I get to spend everyday with this awesome kiddo.

Happy Tuesday

Happy Half Birthday To You

It feels like just yesterday we were driving to the hospital to get checked out because I wasn’t feeling Kinley move. I can still remember the nurses whispering at the end of the hall wondering if they would send us home or send us straight to the hospital. They eventually sent us home only to head back a few hours later where we got to finally meet our precious little. 6 months! 6 months have gone past since that day. Half a year has passed and there are only 6 months until my sweet girl is 1. If these next 6 months go by as fast as these last 6 months then we really need to get a move on planning Mckinley’s birthday. Thanks to Pinterest we are well on our way, but that is for another time.

Month 6 has been an absolute blast. It is absolutely impossible to be mad, sad, angry, or anything other than 100% super-duper happy when my sweet girl is around. She has the most amazing gummy nose wrinkling smile. It makes me so happy when everyone else tells me how just looking at her picture makes other people happy or just makes them smile. As long as she is happy then we are doing something right. So let's get down to Biznass and review some of the highlights of Month 6.

Weight: 17 lbs.

Length: 25" and some

Percentile: 70% in weight (hello chunky lady) and 40% in length (my little peanut)

Activities: Sitting up, grabbing everything and banging it against anything nearby, neked butt time, jumping in your exersaucer and jumper, going stiff as a board so we will stand you up, chewing on your fingers, laughing, smiling, slapping your hands on everything, rubbing your feet together, trying to pick stuff up with your monkey toes. You love to read books and bang on them and we recently discovered you love to rip paper so I can't read a magazine anymore because you go crazy trying to get it. You are still riding in your infant car seat and we won't be switching you to your convertible car seat for a few more lbs. and a few more inches. You are sitting up so well now that we don't really need to keep you in your car seat and stroller frame, but it is so much easier just to transfer you from the car to the frame. I absolutely love your newest cuteness when you reach your hand out to my lips so I will kiss the palm of your hand. It makes my heart melt every time you do it. I also don't mind when you run your fingers through my hair. I am going to be really sad to cut it in May for LOL. I also LOVE how excited you get when you see me now. It is like you just can't believe I am actually there and your whole body goes wild.

Clothing: Even though your fluff butt takes up a bit of room you are now in 6 month and 6-9 outfits so you are pretty true to size. You are a short chunker with the most perfect chunky thighs. I know you probably won’t always be a  girly girl if you are anything like your mama so I dress you like a baby doll any chance I get. 98.9% of the time you are dressed head to toe in pink, but we switch it up from time to time. Hats are still our favorite accessories and we have plenty of those. Cloth diapering is definitely a different creature when food is added to the equation. Let's just say things are a little more sticky. I won't get into any graphic details, but let's just say we can no longer throw everything into a wet bag and just was it. I actually just ordered a diaper sprayer to help things along.

Food: Milk is still your main source of food, but we have finally started eating some food. We started with avocado which was a hit then we tried yellow squash which went ok, but it doesn’t puree very smooth so we will save that for later. Peas are going pretty good and we will try green beans or sweet potatoes next. Making baby food is really easy and really fun and I love knowing exactly what you are eating.

Teeth: We are still waiting for your 2 top teeth to pop through. They don’t really seem to bother you except for some finger chewing every now and then. The drooling has slowed so it may still be a while before we see some pearly whites.

Sleep: I am loving that you are letting me rock you to sleep lately. You could fall asleep all by yourself most nights and sometimes you would just rather talk yourself to sleep, but I am a ok with rocking you every night if you need it. You are hit and miss with the paci and never use it during the day except sometimes when napping and we mostly use it at bedtime. We had a few days where you were waking up throughout the night and thankfully for you very tired mam and daddy you have gone back to going to bed between 7-8 and sleeping until 6. You are up and talking and ready to go at 6 and during the week daddy gets you up and ready to go, but the weekends are mama's time. We like to let daddy sleep in while we cuddle and play.

Speech: You are a gibber jabberer. If you aren't squealing you are talking. You makes lots of fun sounds and noises. Your most used sound is ba ba ba babejesus out of me every time you do it and I will check on you every time you do it and you just smile and laugh at me like "You silly woman can't you tell I am just talkin!"

I am so thankful everyday that I was chosen to be your mama Baby Love. We prayed for you for many nights and we never imagined how super awesome you would be. You have completely changed our lives for the better and I couldn't imagine my life without you in it. You have made your daddy and I better people and I feel like you have brought us even closer then we were before. I can't wait to see how you grow and change in these next 6 months.

Mckinley and her great grandma Gigi

Wonderhorse

Ready To Go

Fluffy double stuffed nightime diaper

Chillin with my boyfriend Noah

Napping with daddy

Exersaucing is exhausting

Lovin on my mama

Little elf

Wild child

Happy girl

First time trying real food. You can't tell, but avocado was a hit

Silly girl

Nom nom nom

Just hanging out playing

Neked butt tummy time

Ready to run

My heart

Ready to do soem eatin

Peas

Wild woman

All smiles all the time

Helping mama do laundry

The tongue

And So It Begins

I knew this day coming for a while, but I never thought it would get here so quickly. I wish somedays I could just freeze time or squish my sweet baby so she couldn't get any bigger. I am trying to soak up each and every second and my husband will just have to get used to me taking random pictures of the smallest things because I want to remember EVERYTHING! I just keep thinking that we will never be first time parents ever again. We will be bumbling idiots pros at this parent thing next time around.

Today was one of those big moments as first time parents. We are about to celebrate Kinley's half birthday and yes we will be celebrating. Today was a yet another big milestone that happened too quickly and kind of nuck up on us. Mckinley had her first taste of real food. We have almost officially made it 6 months on booby milk as we call it around these parts and hopefully we will make it another  2-6 months. I am now  giving myself a big mama pat on the back for making it this far I am very stubborn and even if I have to supplement with some formula I will keep pumping 6 times a day especially if my supply picks up like it did today, but I digress.

I sent Brent to the store yesterday and told him to go ahead and pick up an avocado since we were planning on giving it to her next Friday and thankfully my lovely hubby decided to get not 1 but 2 deliciously ripe avocados because I decided to make myself a delicious turkey and ham sandwich with a creamy avocado spread and as I was eating it Kinley watched every bite I took and even tried to grab my sandwich. I kept telling myself once she was 6 months (in 11 days), sitting up all by herself, and seemed really interested in food (she has consistently been grabbing for my plate, cup, and food for a few weeks now) it would be time to get down to biznass. I have been very hesitant about this day, but today it just felt right. So we set up the video camera, got Kinley's seat ready, and got ready for the main event.

I let Brent take the lead on this one and I handled the recording. At first Brent had a hard time getting Kinley to really open up her mouth to get anything in, but after a few minutes of him pushing the spoon into her mouth she started to figure out what to do. It was amazing how she instinctively knew to start chewing and she never once spit anything out. I of course got a bunch of great pictures and a video that I will hopefully post as as soon as it loads to YouTube which will take forever because it is a pretty lengthy to get the full glourisness of avocado being smushed around and wiped in hair.

All in all she did great and by the end she was actually opening her mouth for more. We will stick with the avocado for a week and then next week we will probably try some carrots or some peas. I think we will stick with vegetables first since they seem to cause fewer allergic reactions (don't quote me on that). I am thinking we will try carrots, peas, green beans, squash, eggplant, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and then we will try some apples and maybe some blueberries and other fruits. Then we will really get adventurous and maybe even try some homemade meat baby food.

I still can't believe it has already been half a year and so many huge events have been happening in such a short amount of time. I know I keep saying I love every age, but 6 months is going to be fun and I can't wait to see what is coming next.

 

Little Angels

Someone recently pointed me to this blog about Tripp and his Mama Courtney. I was so sad this morning when I clicked to open the tab that Tripp has gone to be with God. He is no longer in pain, but their story is still amazing. It breaks my heart to think of his mama missing her baby. I wish I could hug her her and tell her it will hurt a little less someday. I think everyone should read Tripp and Courtney's story. They are both 2 of the most amazing people I have ever heard of.

I am going to go hug my sweet girl and say a little prayer for Tripp's mama that she finds a little piece of peace today.

Milestone Mayhem

If my child does not stop growing I am going to have to start shoving her into 3 month onesies so maybe she stops getting bigger. I am 100% joking because we are actually moving up to a few 6-9 months because my chunky monkey's legs just aren't fitting in 3-6 sleepers. I just had to post before Mckinley's 6 month update because we have hit a pretty big mile stone.

We have been teetering around actually sitting up for quite sometime now, but we are full on long periods of time sitters now. I accidentally added an extra letter in sitters, but thankfully spell correct fixed that for me.

Stop Growing this instant young lady! See even at 5 1/2 months the child doesn't listen to me. The next 18 years are going to be real fun!

Happy 5 Months

Mckinley Grace you have been a very busy little lady this month.

You received the delightful gift of your first ear infection and upper respiratory infection and to add the cherry on the top of that rocky road sundae you have not 1 but 2 teeth coming in. We have been waiting and watching for a bottom tooth to pop through and all of a sudden one day when you were laying on your play mat I noticed your 2 eye teeth working their way through. Needless to say this last week  has been really crappy fun. To be honest it really hasn't been that bad. I know once the teeth actually start to break through that might be another story, but I think we can handle this teething business.

Now for some Month 5 Stats

Age: 5 Months December 27

Weight: 14.8 by my scale 15 by the doctors

Length: 25

Percentile: Right smack dab in the middle at 50%

Sleep: Now that Christmas break is over and we are back in our routine you are sleeping much better again. You moved your bedtime up all by yourself and now youa re going to bed between 8:30-9 and you sleep until 6-7 depending on the day. You do however like to wake up some nights to talk, but you go right back to sleep with a paci. The paci is another story. You can take it or leave it and thankfully you never need it during the day unless you are napping. Sometimes you nao  without it, but you still seem to need it to go to bed at night but you don't need it to stay asleep. Hopefully we will get rid of it soon and it will definitely be gone by a year.


Likes
Long walks on the beach, sunsets, j/k.

You LOVE sitting up and standing. we still have to prop you up with your boppy of you will fall over to your right side, but you are really trying to sit up on your own these days. You are definitely my child because you are extremely independent. I love watching you figure new things out and it seems like you are doing something new everyday. You are the most happy when we actually hold you up so you can stand and or jump. Thankfully we have a doorway jumper and an exersaucer which gives our poor out of shape arms a break, but I must say I do get a pretty good arm workout bouncing you. We are pretty sure you will crawl for a day and move right on to running which will help mama get back into shape faster so I am ok with that.

Let's talk about food. My girl LOVES to eat. It is hilarious now when you see your bottle coming towards you because you know exactly what it is. You are such a little chunker and I know we will have no problems when it is time for you to start eating because like your mama you just love to eat. We are planning on starting food around 6 months so we have been practicing taking breastmilk from a spoon. You don't seem to care for the spoon, but I am sure when it has real food on it you might like it a little better.

I think your most favorite thing in the world is your changing table, having your butt changed, and being neked. Yes neked not naked. We get neked in our house. I wish you could see how fast my spell check started lighting up when I was typing neked. Since we use and are still loving our cloth diapers we have neked butt time a few times a week to air out the butt. This is good for any in any kind of diaper. It allows the bottom to breath and if your baby gets a yeasty bottom if it is warm outside you can help clear up the yeast by sunning their bottom just like you sun cloth diapers to remove stains. You have become very active during diaper changes. You roll around, kick, scream, talk. Needless to say diaper changes in our house have become a full contact sport.


To go along with neked time you love bath time. I think because you get to be neked again and because you love the water. Mama's relaxing baths have become Mama and Kinley baths. I have found that it works better for us if we bathe together. Those bath tubs are useless and cause back pain and are just pains in the you know what. So far we haven't had any potty issues while in the tub and I pray we never will because that would mean we would have to shower after our bath and that is a lot of work.

We have a new saying in our house "thumbing it". It seems whenever you want to feel something or you like something you run your thumb up and down it.

One of your favorite things to thumb and rub is Daddy's beard. I love watching y'all cuddle and hangout and it kills me when you reach your little hand up and rub his face. Y'all are best buddies and I know he is wrapped around that precious chubbylittle finger. Give it time baby girl nd youll be able to sweet talk him into anything.




Dislikes

Sadly we have a big dislike to talk about. My chunky monkey you may love to eat, but ever since the ear infection you no longer want to nurse. Cue sad mama face and maybe a  few tears. I still try every now and then to get you to nurse, but you just don't seem to want to. Mama is stubborn so I pump 6 times a day to make sure you are still only getting breast milk. I know we can make it to 8 months and then we still try for a year, but we will take it 1 day at a time. Sadly my supply has gone down, but that is another post for another day.

You still don't care for tummy time, but you can lift your head up so high now and I think you will start to army crawl soon. You woll from side to side on your play mat but you only like to lay on your tummy for about 10 minutes and then you done. It is hilarious how you will scream on your belly and the instant we roll you back to your back you start smiling.

Let's not forget the best part of month 5

YOUR FIRST CHRISTMAS!
I new better then to buy you too many toys because I knew the grandparents would hook you up and hook you up they did. Mama and daddy got you a few fun things like a Wheely bug, a set of vintage wooden blocks in a pull cart, a soft tea set, some hats, a sippy cup, some mesh food teethers, and an assortment of other small goodies. I can honestly say this was the best Christmas I have ever had. There was nothing I wanted for Christmas except for my little family to be together and healthy and happy.

I love this series of pictures from you 5 month photo shoot. This is truly who you are. You love checking things out and figuring them out and you crak yourself up.

What is this?

Do you see this?

This things is AWESOME!

Your first New Years wasn't very exciting. Mama go food poisinig fromeating left over Christmas breakfast casserole  we just chille at home, but it was nice to spend it together just the 3 of us.

Baby girl I am not just saying this because I am your mama, but you are the happiest most incredible little girl God ever created. You are ALWAYS happy and I promise I don't just post the happy picture. Now don't get me wrong because you definitely have your moments, but they are few and far between and usuall occur when you are hungry. Nonni was right when she said your chubby jowls must be sore at the end of the day because you are always smiling. These past 5 months have been the best 5 months of my life. I couldnt ask for anymore blessings then I already have.

Happy Birthday 7 Months Early

I found a Blog that has every idea I want for Kinley's 1st birthday. Luckily we already have all kinds of decorations we can use for Mckinley's Vintage 1st Birthday Par Tea (get it Par Tea/Party).

I want everything girly, simple, and sweet just like my baby girl.

I actually just bought the most perfect Birthday Tea Party Dress from This and That for Kids. It is the PERFECT colors and it is exactly what I was looking for for Mckinley's birthday dress.



I am also having a friend make Mckinley a cute t-shirt with an applique teapot on it with a 1 appliqued on it.

I have pinned a ton of stuff on my Pinterest board and thankfully I already have a ton of cute stuff we can use to decorate. I also have a very crafty mom and mother in law who can help me with a few other little things.

I have plenty of time to plan and there is a kitchen waiting to be cleaned so enough birthday talk for today.

Jive Talkin

I had Kinley's 5 month update all typed and ready to post and blogger ate it so now I have to remember everything I wrote and repost it, but in the meantime here is a video of my little talker. She is definitely my child.